Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime.

I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's a slick director and we buy everything going on. 

This was prime Eastwood as he moved from being the tough guy lead and into playing older characters. Few actors let themselves actually be old on screen. Eastwood has made an art out of it. He is not afraid to be an old man on screen. That is true for his role as Luther. He is a competent thief and uses his age as an alibi. How could I be the one to repel out the window at my age? 

Speaking of old guys the immortal EG Marshall is also in this. This is one of those with a stacked cast but Marshall stands out for me. One of my all time favorite films is 12 Angry Men and Marshall is a standout on that cast as one of the jurors who defends their vote of guilty up until the end. He has some great scenes in this film with the highlight being his inevitable confrontation with Eastwood. 

Like I said the rest of the cast is stacked as well. Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, Judy Davis, Dennis Haysbert, EG Marshall, and Richard Jenkins in a small role as a hit man. Jesus that's stacked. Everyone is perfect in their roles and Eastwood does a good job directing. He always comes across as a minimalist director to me. There's not a bombastic nature to his film. His actors never seem to be over the top. On the the reverse of that they don't come across as subdued either. Eastwood is one of the best actor directors out there.

This film is on HBO right now. I say check it out. It is not completely lost to film history but I don't think it gets the full recognition it deserves. Give it a watch.